Stereotypes And Discrimination

Stereotypes and Discrimination

In a growing world, relying on education and intelligence, judgments in a social environment are still continuously based off of appearance. A study of the importance of outer looks was produced through a TV game show. Contestants fought to answer questions correctly to improve their personal score. At the end of the game, the player with the highest score was asked to eliminate a team member. Although many times an unattractive player would have higher scores and could be more beneficial than another teammate, only 27% of unattractive members were chosen to advance to the next round (Belot, Bhaskar, and van de Ven 852-853). When society overlooks qualities and characteristics of high value for looks, discrimination conquers.

The topic of stereotypes and discrimination is expressed in the plots of the short stories “A&P” by John Updike and “How to date a brown girl (black girl, white girl, and halfie)” by Junot Diaz. Research has not been conducted heavily on the usage of this theme in the two stories. A&P, one of Updike’s most popular stories (Johnson 658), focuses on stereotyping attractiveness and discriminating on appearance; while, “How to date a brown girl (brown girl, white girl, and halfie)” focuses on race. Although research has not been done and popularized it is a known thought.

A stereotype is the grouping of all members of a certain common distinction into a set of standardized rules and aspects (Moore 36). Common areas people stereotype are race and gender; however, people also use sexual preferences, age, religion, and attractiveness as distinctions to group. The use of stereotypes is ethically wrong and not always correct. People use these judgments as a way to separate a...

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...meone falls in. To be in the most desirable rank, it seems as though the best approach is to be a white, wealthy male.

Stereotypes have also affected both platonic and romantic relationships. People of a certain race or class are expected to mingle with those of the same race or class unless they want to face discrimination. Discrimination against homosexuality, because it breaks social norms, is also an example of this. Interracial relationships used to be the most unheard relationships, and although they still may be questioned, today they have become common in comparison to homosexual relationships.

Overall, stereotypes are typically false accusations and can be destructive to individual opportunities and the society as a whole. Pre-conceived notions of race, gender, and class should be things of the past because they only lead to unnecessary discrimination.